Home > News Archive > Dalai Lama kicking off New England tour

Dalai Lama kicking off New England tour

The Boston Channel

The Dalai Lama speaks during a news conference at the University of California Santa Barbara events centre on Friday, 24 April 2009. The Dalai Lama will kick off a four-day visit to New England Wednesday, 29 April.File photo/AP/Richard Vogel/US

The Dalai Lama will kick off a four-day visit to New England Wednesday.

Wednesday he holds a press conference in Cambridge to talk about his trip.

His Holiness will be speaking Thursday and Friday at Harvard and Saturday he’ll head to Gillette Stadium to give two public talks.

On Sunday he visited San Francisco and served food to the homeless in a local soup kitchen.

He broke bread with seven down-and-out men, telling stories and making fun of his English — or lack thereof.

Finally, the head of Tibet’s government-in-exile and one of the most significant spiritual leaders in the world tried this: “You know,” he said, “I’m homeless too.”

On his swing through the San Francisco Bay area he talked peace and called attention to the plight of the nation’s poor.

His visit was arranged by The Forgotten International, a nonprofit that promotes helping the world’s poorest people.

Ambbeei Hall, a 59-year-old Vietnam veteran and practicing Buddhist, said the Dalai Lama tried hard to make everyone laugh.

“When he brought up George Bush,” Hall said, “I couldn’t hold it.”

As it happened, someone at the Dalai Lama’s lunch table asked whether he had met President Barack Obama. He said he would meet with him in October, then recalled President George W. Bush.

“I love him,” the Dalai Lama said of the ex-president. “But some of his policies….”

Copyright © 2009 TheBostonChannel.com

Published in The Boston Channel